HONG KONG - GOVERNMENTS gathered on Monday to hash out measures to make recycling old ships safer and more environmentally sound amid criticism the proposals would fail to limit pollution and protect workers in the industry.

The five-day meeting in Hong Kong was expected to see countries approve international rules governing the ship breaking industry, based largely in South Asia, whose practices kill scores of workers every year and leave beaches stained with oil and other chemicals.

Among rules being considered: controlling the amount of hazardous materials ships are built with and requiring older ships to be broken down in yards that meet certain environmental standards.

Adopting a ship recycling convention will help limit the industry's impact on 'safety, health and the environment for this and future generations', Efthimios E. Mitropoulos, secretary-general of the International Maritime Organisation, told delegates in Hong Kong.

At the same, he called on government to balance efforts to make ship recycling safer and greener with 'commercial requirements ... industry concerns and any associated economic considerations.' Critics complained the draft would safeguard industry interests at the cost of workers and the environment.

They say the convention falls short, lacking effective enforcement and failing to hold responsible Western ship owners for removing and treating noxious waste from their vessels. It also allows beaching, an environmentally hazardous practice in which ships are broken down along the shoreline; it's commonplace in South Asia.

'This does more harm then good,' said Ingvild Jenssen of the NGO Platform on Shipbreaking, a Brussels-based group of 14 environmental and human rights organisations. 'They're going to rubber stamp some dangerous practices.'

Ship breaking, like other industries in an age of globalisation, migrated several decades ago from the West to the developing world.

Up to 1,000 ships are broken down each year, mostly in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan and to a lesser degree China and Turkey, according to industry estimates. -- AP